Tag: Patriotism

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination drawn from interactions at the ground level. Any resemblance to actual persons, living ordead, is purelycoincidental.

Early one morning, four years and a few months into the acche-din era, Rajan lay in bed reminiscing about the events of the night before with a sense of satisfaction. He had, for the umpteenth time, shared a Whatsapp post which declared that Nehru was a Muslim. The overall silence in the various groups made him happy. His joy was marred, momentarily, when he recollected Subhash’s post challenging him with irrefutable proof. He dismissed the incident quickly from his mind. Something as inconsequential as irrefutable proof wasn’t going to stop him from doing his duty towards the motherland.

A page of joy
As Rajan stretched himself out of sleep induced lethargy, he was smiling to himself. News reports of the previous evening had given him a lot of cheer. He was looking forward to another day of patriotic indulgence. Later as he sat sipping a cup of steaming hot coffee, he picked up the daily newspaper. The front page had a full-page advertisement of his dear leader announcing the completion of a scheme launched by the Central government in 2012. The day, which had begun well, was getting better.

Social Activity
Rajan wanted more action. Picking up his cell phone he quickly launched himself into his favourite hunting ground, the social media. He had his daily quota of anti-nationals to slay before he stepped

out. His task was simple in that he did not have to apply his mind at all. When faced with inconvenient questions, he only had to dig into a set of counter-arguments based on past events. His daily forays had made him adept at pulling out a what-about or two for any indefensible position. If he found himself challenged, he could dig into stuff already authored by content creators. The IT cell, with its sample messages, had taken standardisation to a different level. If everything else failed, he could fall back on some time-tested methods adopted by his leaders; say something irrelevant with a straight face and scoot.

Out and about
He completed his daily morning chore quickly and left his house. On the way were hoardings thanking the benevolent leader for free gas cylinders. Another spoke about a banking scheme launched with great fanfare. Rajan thanked his leader for giving the poor an opportunity to repay their debt to the nation by way of a service fee. In the office his duty towards the motherland was well-defined. He had to make sure that nobody in the sales and marketing team blamed government policies for low sales. His social media experience proved handy. He could easily create a sense of guilt in anyone who tried to blame their failures on the government. His day today was relatively simple. The bosses had stopped questioning low sales and poor profits.

Patriotism meter

As his working day ended, his excitement was at a new high. He was about to serve his motherland again, without a murmur. He quickly drove up to the nearest petrol pump. “Full tank!” he thundered and looked around. A biker was cursing the government for the high price of petrol. “Anti-national!” Rajan hissed under his breath, frowning at him. Wanting to recover his equanimity, he looked at the petrol dispenser and saw his patriotism meter ticking. Soon it crossed the previous best he had ever clocked for a ‘full tank’.

As he pulled out, he couldn’t wait to burn up his full tank of petrol. He wanted to return soon and show his solidarity with a leader who could do no wrong.